Month: November 2018

The annual LACMA Art + Film gala should consider adding + Fashion and + Music to its name — all four industries were well-represented at the museum Saturday thanks not only to honorees Catherine Opie and Guillermo del Toro but also to presenter Gucci and a house band that featured Beck, Dave Grohl and St.

There’s a new box office queen in town. Fox’s Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” overperformed with a rocking $50 million when it debuted in 4,000 theaters. That was enough to dominate in North America over fellow newcomers “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” and “Nobody’s Fool.” “Bohemian Rhapsody” ranks as the second-best start for a

With the American Film Market halfway through its 39th edition at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, producers are scrambling to adjust to the world’s ever-growing demand for more and more buzzy movies. “There’s a voracious appetite for content,” said Mark Gooder, principal with Cornerstone Films. “Compelling stories are valuable enough that we can still

November 4, 2018 6:00AM PT Warner Bros. has boarded “White Snake,” a fantasy adventure story from China’s Light Chaser Animation Studios. The film is being represented in international markets by Hong Kong- and Paris-based All Rights Entertainment. Warner is credited as a co-producer and has rights in China. The Hollywood studio is currently negotiating to

November 4, 2018 5:59AM PT Indie Rights, a U.S.-based sales agent specializing in VoD rights, has expanded into production. Its first effort is genre-defying vampire film “Blood From Stone,” written and directed by Geoff Ryan. The film stars Vanja Kapetanovic, a powerhouse Serbian actor and former MMA fighter, and Hungarian actress and model Gabriella Toth. She

Moroccan-born Belgian helmers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (“Gangsta”) are teaming up with French filmmaker Jeremie Guez (“A Blueberry in My Heart”) on their next French-language project, “Calypso.” Th helmers are currently prepping to shoot “Bad Boys for Life” with Will Smith. Guez, who will will soon start shooting “The Sound of Philadelphia” with

November 3, 2018 8:00PM PT Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment has acquired the worldwide rights to the romantic comedy “Say My Name” and “Robin: Watch for Wishes.” The Los Angeles-based media production company, led by Devlin, Marc Roskin and Rachel Olschan, is taking on worldwide sales and domestic distribution. “Say My Name,” written by Deborah Frances-White,

Lena Headey wants her new movie, “The Flood,” to further understanding of immigration crises around the world. She plays Wendy in the film, a British immigration officer deciding the fate of an asylum seeker. “What I hope, personally, is we change 10 minds, or people reconsider how they feel about someone who has lost everything,”

Martha Pinson’s “Tomorrow” took the narrative feature prize at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival on Saturday, while Matthew Testa’s “The Human Element” won the documentary award. Other winners were the short “Geoff” and its directors and “Hold the Night” for editing. Skyler Samuels won the acting Jury Award for “Spare Room,” while “One Cambodian Family

November 3, 2018 12:08PM PT Beautiful visuals and tender romance feature in the tale of a couple caught up in changing times in China in the 1980s and ’90s An affecting and magnificently photographed love story set in a Chinese mining town during the massive economic reforms of the 1980s and ‘90s, “The Poet” is

In every great rock biopic, there’s a defining sequence of ecstatic musical fire that does two things at once. For openers, it gets your blood racing at the song you’re hearing. (With each electrifying note, it demonstrates why the star we’re gawking at deserves to have a movie made about him.) But the other dimension

November 3, 2018 9:13AM PT “Aliens of the Deep” director, Steven Quale is set to direct aquatic thriller “Alphas” based on the screenplay by Frank Hannah. Finance and sales are by Voltage Pictures. The story sees a school of great white sharks terrorize a coastal town. The town’s only hope is a damaged killer whale

Breaking Glass Pictures has acquired North American rights to Bruno Gascon’s high-concept feature debut “Carga,” a human trafficking thriller with Polish star Michalina Olszanska, Victor Norte and Sara Sampiao. Shot in English, Russian and Portuguese, “Carga” is being represented in international markets by Paris-based company Wide Management. Olszanska headlines the film as a woman searching

“Bohemian Rhapsody” is heading for a rhapsodic debut from 4,000 North American locations with an estimated $46 million. The Fox biopic starring Rami Malek as Queen frontman Freddie Mercury earned $18.4 million Friday. Bryan Singer directed the film from Anthony McCarten’s screenplay. Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joseph Mazzello, Aidan Gillen, Tom Hollander, and Mike Myers also star. “Bohemian

Germany’s leading sales companies have descended on the American Film Market with a wide range of titles that span horror and historical fare to arthouse, animation and family pics. Supernatural thrillers look to be especially prevalent this year, with such chilling titles as “The Sonata,” “Hanna’s Homecoming” and “Party Hard, Die Young” — all from

In 2017, a group of film companies announced the launch of the Foreign Film Buyer-Distributors Assn. of Korea, aiming to contribute to a better business environment and fairer practices. However, the first dispute occurred between member companies in September — less than a year after organization’s birth. Jinjin Pictures, a member of the association, agreed